Blame the Dads

This report out of the Sandy Hook massacre back in December 2012 is wrong on so many levels. Here's why:

1. The fact that Adam Lanza had readily accessible ammunition and firearms at his disposal. That said, we'll save the gun control debate to another post, one where I'm interested in engaging in a long winded comments "discussion" about it and still not convincing the other side of the errors in promoting gun ownership.

2. The fact that the kids in this situation knew what was happening. By this I mean that adolescent minds have been pre-conditioned to expect something like Sandy Hook to happen.

The Sandy Hook shooting wasn't the first shooting on a school campus, far from it; however, the sheer ferociousness of this killing caught our collective psyche off guard. We have to shrug our shoulders when we look at this portrait of a young boy who slowly descended into madness because to acknowledge the truth that we as a society ignored him...I don't think we could live with the guilt.

Is the only answer for kids today to take a gun and shoot up the school? Moreover, is this "answer" something which teens and children are supposed to prepare for as they progress into adulthood? Doesn't this type of thing happen in shopping malls as well?

IMHO, to hear that Lanza shot at a cramped bathroom of 18 students who were trying to squeeze in and lock the door tells me that the victims' innate conditioning kicked in. I hypothesize that this conditioning isn't as primal as we'd like to believe it is; instead, I'm feeling that modern day society has created   culture in which young kids are saturated with shock and "winner-take-all" imagery, that Adam Lanza's massacre was both predetermined and a precursor to what can happen again. My ultimate hope is that parents and adults (both father AND mothers!), can create an environment where we recognize early signs of insanity and immediately intervene.

3. The fact that people (e.g., comments, article slants, media coverage, etc.) are emphasizing their blame on the mother, and overlooking the father's influence has in this situation. Maybe it's easier to blame someone who can't defend themselves (she was murdered by her own son - let that sink in for a second). BUT, the father is the surviving lineage to Adam Lanza, however he's not really the focus of current events. Society seems to be more keen on reliving and retelling the events from that tragic day. But I ask, where is the father in all of this? Also, why is the mother taking a trip when the boy hasn't come out his room for three months? Is she just giving up her house to this dude? Why hasn't anyone called the cops???

It saddens me to think that there exist adult parents who are so interested in the immediate pleasure of their lives, that they fail to act upon warning signs from their own flesh and blood? Dads, take note on this one: DO SOMETHING about your kid, or you're going to be the one who take the blame.